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There is perhaps no group more in immigration news in recent months than unaccompanied minors, especially those coming from Latin America. In the past few years, ever since an explosion of gang violence in Central and South America, a steady flood of unaccompanied minors has come to the border between the United States and Mexico, seeking asylum or other forms of relief. However, many have found not relief, but suffering of a different kind.

Migration Statistics Show Trends

The Migration Policy Institute (MPI) states that while children from all over the world immigrate or seek asylum in the United States, as many as 75 percent of them have been boys from El Salvador, Mexico, and Honduras, at least since 2009. There are multiple reasons for this, none of which have to do with any kind of gang-related or otherwise malicious motives, as has sometimes been alleged.

The United States has governorship over a handful of territories such as Puerto Rico or Guam, referring to them as insular areas. A U.S. insular area is defined as a nominally self-governing territory which looks to the United States for guidance and various benefits. Given the horrific situation in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, questions about the lawful status of the Puerto Ricans have been asked by those not in the know, especially in regard to the possibility of relocating to the U.S. mainland.

Citizenship and Relocation

As of 2017, the U.S. Congress had extended citizenship to the residents of all inhabited U.S. possessions except for American Samoa, which is an unincorporated territory (a territory must incorporate, or organize in a certain way, for its people to be eligible for citizenship). Thus, residents of all other U.S. possessions such as Puerto Rico, the Northern Marianas Islands, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands have the same citizenship rights as anyone born on the U.S. mainland. The Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, and Palau are sometimes named as U.S. possessions, but this is erroneous—they are sovereign states and their nationals are citizens of their respective countries, with no claim to U.S. citizenship.

While no one wants to contemplate the idea, Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) does make mistakes. After a certain period of time, these stop being mistakes, and become agency policy. Such has become the case—or very near the case—with ICE arrests of U.S. citizens.

While obviously, rescinding such a policy is the option most likely to restore agency credibility, in the meantime, it is imperative for both immigrants and U.S. citizens to be aware that this may conceivably be an option. It should never happen, but when it does, too often the arrestee may be caught off guard.

In September 2017, the federal administration began to float the idea of lowering the already-low refugee cap numbers for FY 2018, citing an allegedly insufficient vetting process, especially for those from countries which have historically sponsored terrorism. Given the somewhat frenetic pace of government in the eight months since the changeover, the story has somewhat gotten lost in the national media, but to those who have family members who might qualify for status, this is a very real concern. It is important to understand the truth of the situation and not fall prey to the misinformation that abounds.

The Process is Extremely Comprehensive

One of the most common misconceptions about refugee resettlement in the United States is that they are simply permitted to walk into the country, so to speak; the average layman is only familiar with standard visa vetting (if that), and often wrongly equates it with refugee processing.

After the announcement that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program will be phased out after six months, 800,000 people from all walks of life are faced with questions. One group that has often been overlooked is the approximately 2,700 DACA recipients who are either serving or have signed contracts to serve in the United States military. Their situation is just as precarious as the others’, but they have arguably been betrayed more fully.

The MAVNI Program

Instituted under President Obama in 2009, the Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest (MAVNI) program recruits immigrants with legal status (which DACA recipients do have) who are held to possess vital skills useful to the U.S. military, such as languages, nursing or physician’s abilities, or knowledge of mission terrain. More than 10,000 people have been recruited for the program, and to lose one-tenth of its personnel at once would be a significant issue for MAVNI and for the Armed Forces as a whole.

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